GC 2007: Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis Hands-on

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Rockstar takes a swing with Wii.

By Erik Brudvig

Few would argue with the success of Wii Sports. The tennis game alone is good for hours of social fun. But wouldn't it be nice to actually be able to control your Mii as it ran around on the court? You know, just in case you wanted a little extra involvement in your game beyond swinging the Wiimote at the right time. After a quick play session with Rockstar's Table Tennis at this year's Leipzig Games Convention, it looks like those who want a bit more out of their paddle sports should soon be getting their wish. Don't worry, casual gamers, there's room for you here too.

Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis first appeared last year on Xbox 360. If you played that game, a lot of the presentation will feel familiar. All of the characters, clothing, and arenas make a return for the Wii. Even the character's relative strengths and weaknesses remain true to the original. It's the controls that make this game a whole new match.

Table Tennis has three control schemes that offer various levels of involvement in both shot placement and player control. The most basic setup mimics that of Wii Sports. Swinging the Wiimote at the right time will result in a good hit. Which direction you aim the controller in as you swing will determine the ball's general placement. Making solid contact and keeping the ball in play is fairly easy, from what we've seen, allowing extended rallies to take place quite often. If you want to get a little more involved with this basic control scheme, using the d-pad as you swing will allow you to add four directions of spin. The A Button performs a lob while the B Button whips out a focus shot if you've built up enough focus during extended rallies. In this mode, your player is on rails and automatically positions him or herself in the proper place.

The other two control schemes are more involved and, as such, make use of the nunchuck attatchment. In Sharpshooter mode, the analog stick is used to precisely place shots around the table. This gives the game a feel a bit closer to what gamers experienced on the original Xbox 360 version. The other setup, called Control Freak, takes the player off rails and allows the user to control where the paddler stands.

We tried out both the basic control setup and Control Freak and found they both had short learning curves. Serving, which requires more precise timing to even land a shot on the table than other swings, takes the longest to get used to. By the longest amount of time, we mean a few tries before we were popping serves all over the table.

Since the game doesn't use a one to one swing reaction to the Wiimote, you can actually swing the controller early and then just watch as the on-screen avatar completes the motion a moment later. Better timing will obviously produce better swings and we didn't quite have enough time with the game to learn just how to rip out some sure winners. But the Rockstar representative demoing the game to us didn't seem to have a problem making us look bad at a moment's notice.

Having played a fair amount of Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis on Xbox 360, this Wii version feels drastically different. Aside from the lower resolution art and similar animations, the whole experience feels like a completely new game. And that's not a bad thing at all.